The Third Heidelberg Laureate Forum
The Third Heidelberg Laureate Forum equaled and perhaps outperformed the previous two. It was also, however, a poignant event because we were reminded of the ephemeral nature of our human lives.
Vinton G. Cerf
Advertisement
Computers and, especially, computer programs may be among the least well understood artifacts known to mankind.
ACM will be 70 years old in 2017. It is not too early to being thinking about how we might usefully recognize this milestone. Such moments encourage all of us to think about what we want to achieve in the future.
An Interview with U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith
Recently appointed U.S. CTO Megan Smith discusses her evolving governmental role.
A Celebration of Accomplishments
It is that time of year when ACM once again celebrates the accomplishments of an impressive array of contributors to our field, profession, and to ACM.
Anyone with a collection of DVD or CD-ROM disks will appreciate that we cannot rely in the long term on specialized format devices being available. It is worth some effort to pay attention to the nature of these dependencies, their scope, and the potential side effects.
As configuration complexity and scale grow, the need for smarter configuration systems, better online assistance, and the ability to share context with customer service agents will become increasingly important.
Despite the wonders of the human brain, it does not appear to have a convenient way to grow processing capacity while we can achieve that objective with our artificial computers by adding memory or adding processors.
There Is Nothing New Under the Sun
Centuries before George Boole and Charles Babbage, the notion of binary encoding was well known and apparently even used! Julius Caesar was known to use a simple rotational cipher. Francis Bacon devised a binary encoding scheme and wrote about it in 1623.
Shape the Future of Computing
ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.
Get Involved